Just Between Friends
by lovedance359
Summary: When Annabeth breaks down over the trauma of Percy's disappearance, coupled with the stress of building the Argo 2 and practically leading the camp, Piper has a late night conversation with her to calm her down. Rated K for swearing.


**Hey guys. I haven't written a one-shot yet, I can't sleep, I have writers block for my other story, and thus this was born. It's set pre- Son of Neptune, and has some Annabeth-Piper friendship with some Percabeth thrown in there too.**

**Hope you guys like it! I love you guys :)**

* * *

Piper hadn't really gone to bed expecting to be woken up in the middle of the night by an ear-piercing scream.

Nevertheless, approximately 150 demigods woke up to the sound of a shrill shriek tearing through the previously silent camp. Piper sat up in her bed, blinking into the harsh light after opening her eyes to find that somebody had turned the lights on.

"What the-?"

Her question was cut off by another agonized scream, and then silence. Her heart sank as she realized who it was that was making all the noise. It wasn't the first time that this had happened. A few nights ago, while everyone was sitting around the campfire, Piper turned to Annabeth mid-song, expecting to find her best friend laughing and singing like the rest of the camp, but instead found her smiling sadly, not singing along, with tears rolling silently down her cheeks. That night, she, along with the other demigods, had been woken up by the sound of Annabeth crying out. When she found Annabeth's brother Malcolm standing outside the Athena cabin the next morning, he told her solemnly that Annabeth had had a nightmare about Percy, and that when she woke up she hadn't dealt with it very well.

It looked like it had happened again. Despite the fact that Chiron had warned all the head councilors to keep the campers in their cabins, seeing as Annabeth hated the attention but couldn't control whether it would happen again, Piper knew that she needed to be with her friend right now.

She pushed the covers back, jumped out of bed, and threw open the door of her cabin, ignoring her siblings' protests._ To Hades with the rules_, she thought. After spotting the telltale owl across the green, she sprinted across the green, earning many whistles and cat-calls from some of the guys- she had slept in really short shorts and a rather skimpy tank top she saved for nighttime when no one could see her (it got insanely hot in her cabin- they campers couldn't stand it being below 80 degrees for some reason), but she wasn't going to waste time with something as trivial as clothes when her friend needed her. Even now, as she neared Cabin Six, she could hear muffled shouts and the cries of the daughter of Athena.

The door banged open upon her arrival, and she was greeted by the entire cabin either watching fearfully from their beds, unsure of what to do, or her closer friends, like Malcolm and a few others, hovering over her bed and trying to calm her down.

None of them paid her attention except Malcolm, who she had taken a liking to after he stood up to Drew one time after she made fun of him. "Piper," he said, "You shouldn't be here." Thankfully, his eyes stayed on hers, unlike the boys outside, who had been looking at her chest. Piper cursed herself mentally for not pulling on a damn sweatshirt, because she felt _really_ exposed_,_ but it was too late for that now.

"Yeah, well, it's kind of too late for that now," she gasped, out of breath from sprinting across the entire green. While their little confrontation was going on, she could hear Annabeth still crying over the sounds of her friends and the people outside who had ignored their own head councilors.

He sighed reluctantly. "Fine. You're our best chance of getting her to calm down, anyway." As if on cue, the crowd of Athena campers stood up and let her through to Annabeth, who looked awful. Her hair, which must have been put up into a messy bun, was quite disheveled. Her duvet was on the ground beside her bed, revealing her sheets tangled hopelessly around her legs. She was wearing Percy's sweatshirt, like she did every night, unless she had to wash it (in which case she wore one of his shirts). While physically, she looked terrible, the thing that got Piper most was her expression. She looked hopeless and helpless, terrified and distraught. Her eyes held an expression of utter despair and sorrow, and they shone with tears. She looked up, slightly confused, and when she saw Piper, she just opened her arms.

It was a rare occasion when Annabeth Chase offered you a hug. She either did it because she was in an insanely happy mood, or in a mood like right now. Piper sat down on the bed next to her and wrapped her arms tightly around the daughter of Athena.

"I...I had the dream again, and..." She burst into another round of tears. She rubbed her back in what she hoped was a soothing manner (being soothing wasn't really Piper's strong suit) and tried to get her to calm down.

"Shh, you don't have to talk about it." Her hand reached up and wiped hastily at her eyes.

"No, no I should. I, I don't think it was a nightmare, I think it might have been a v-vision. Percy, he was on the ground, and..." She started hyperventilating, her chest rising up and down faster and faster. Her voice got continually higher as she struggled to get the words out between breaths. "He wasn't moving, and I- I..." She took a deep breath. "I think there were monsters there, and-" Her voice cracked and she collapsed into tears all over again. It hurt her to see Annabeth like this. She was the strong one, the one the campers went to for advice, the one they looked up to. To see her in such a fragile emotional state was jarring. She must've been exhausted. She hardly ever slept at all, and when she did it was for a few hours at the most. Not to mention how emotionally exhausting the last few months had been on her, with worrying about Percy and supervising the building of the Argo II, and the stress of everything must've weighed down on her until she finally cracked.

"What if he's dead, Piper?" The words burst out of her mouth unwelcome, and as soon as she said it she clapped her hands over her mouth. The entire cabin was silent, the words hanging in the air. The silence was louder than any noise could have been. Annabeth looked horrified at what she had just said, horrified that she had even considered the possibility of him being _dead._

"Annabeth," she said quietly. She didn't look at her, still too transfixed on the words she had just uttered to focus on anything else. "Annabeth." Piper tried again, a little louder. She buried her head in her pillow, her arms flopped out behind her. The sleeves of Percy's sweatshirt covered her hands, like a child wearing their father's jacket, making her seem small and fragile. "Look at me," Piper said. While she didn't use charmspeak, her voice was still persuasively compelling, and finally Annabeth looked up.

"Let's go outside," Piper suggested. She looked a little hesitant. "We could go down to the beach," she said gently, and Annabeth nodded. The beach was her one place of refuge from the weight she held on her shoulders. Piper suspected that she talked out loud to Percy there, but she didn't think she wanted anyone to know that. She was pretty sure it was the one place Annabeth let herself cry, too, until now.

Annabeth went to the beach a lot.

Piper wrapped her arm around Annabeth's waist and stood up, demonstrating for Annabeth to do so as well. Annabeth snaked out from her grip and stood up on her own, stubborn as always. Her siblings looked at her concernedly, and she told them to go back to sleep and that she would be back in a while.

"Do you want to go out the back way? There's a lot of people out there."

Annabeth visibly cringed, but shook her head. "No, it's okay." Piper smiled in spite of the situation. Same stubborn Annabeth.

She was about to open the door when she stopped me. "Wait," she said.

She turned around to face her. "What?"

"Do you want a sweater or something, or were you planning on walking around like that?"

* * *

As soon as all of that had been settled, they walked down to the lake together. As soon as they had walked outside, the campers had scattered and run back to their bunks, thankfully.

They reached the crest of the hill that lead to the beach and sat down. The moon was still high, reflected onto the Sound in a shimmery, shiny line. It truly was beautiful.

"So do you want to talk about it, or...?" Piper trailed off as she shook her head.

"No thanks. I just need to clear my head."

"Are you sure?" She asked. She bent her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs, not replying.

"Do you remember my first day here? You gave me a tour of the camp, and then you let me cry about all of my problems. And, as lame as it sounds, it helped. So maybe you should. Or just cry. Or something. Because I know for a fact that nothing's worse than bottling up all of your feelings. You should open up to someone instead of hiding your feelings live you have been for the last four months."

"I've done enough crying for a lifetime," Annabeth admitted. "But I guess it couldn't hurt to talk. It's just... it hurts to talk about him. It really, really does. I just don't really... know how to be sad, I guess? All around me, people are dying all the time, and after a while, I guess I just kind of got used to the fact that most of us don't live very long. And it's always really, really sad, but I never really felt the impact of their death, you know? It hurt to think about so I just didn't think about it in order to stay focused on what I had to do." She took a deep breath. "But it's not like that, with Percy, it-" Her voice broke and she put her head in her hands, frustrated with herself for crying.

"It's different with him. We've been friends for the past four years, which for me is a long time. A lot of things haven't been very constant in my life. They don't last very long. But Percy's always been there for me. And now he's gone too, and I feel kind of... lost. It's why I want to be an architect, you know."

"To make something permanent."

"Yeah," she said. "You're the only person I've ever told that to except Percy."

"Why?"

"Because it sounds silly, to want to be an architect for such a pathetic reason as 'people keep leaving me'."

"It's not pathetic. It's inspiring."

They sat like that for a while, staring at the moon hanging low over the Sound. The trees stood out agains the deep blue of the sky, sprinkled with white dots of light. It still struck Piper how beautiful this place was, every time she had a chance to fully appreciate it. It still managed to take her breath away.

While they sat, she thought over the past few months. It still shocked her how much Annabeth cared about Percy. She had never known someone so young who was as passionate about their loved one as she was. She had never really thought it was possible to be that in love. With Annabeth and Percy, it was something different altogether. Whenever Annabeth spoke about him, aside from getting really sad, she got this certain expression when she thought of him. It was fiercely passionate.

Annabeth's breathing grew steady and Piper could tell that she had stopped crying.

"Can we go back now?" She turned to her and studied Annabeth's face. Her eyes still had a remnant of misery, but that look was always there. It was nothing that Piper wasn't used to.

She smiled. "Sure." She stood up and dusted the sand off her legs, then reached out to help Annabeth up. After a moment, she accepted Piper's hand and she hauled her up.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"Don't mention it."

"Come on, let's go."

"Can you, uh... not tell anyone what I told you?"

"I would never. It'll stay just between friends," Piper reassured her.

"Thank you," Annabeth said gratefully.

* * *

They walked back towards the cabins. Thankfully, the other head councilors had gotten all the other campers back inside and hopefully back to sleep. They stopped by the Athena cabin, where Malcolm was still waiting up for Annabeth. He took her by the shoulder and steered her back to her bed. She slipped beneath the covers and closed her eyes.

"Thank you," he said, still watching her. Piper knew he was protective of her, and that they were close to each other, but they honestly never really talked that much.

She shook my head. "It was nothing."

He stared at me. "Nothing? You were the first one from another cabin to come here, and from what I can tell, you helped her a lot. I don't know what you said to her, but it seemed to work. You're a good friend to her, Piper."

A warm feeling grew in my stomach, and she smiled. "Thanks. I should get back to my cabin. See you tomorrow."

"See you." She slipped out the cabin door and winced as the cool night air hit her. She closed it silently, and walked slowly across the grass to number 10.

She could hear Drew before I even opened the door. No doubt she had taken the opportunity to talk about Piper neglecting the rules. She sighed and rolled her eyes. She could be ridiculous sometimes.

Drew was sitting on her bed and the rest of the campers were circled around her bed, eager to hear what she had to say. Piper could feel the charmspeak rolling across the room, flooding them with faith in her words. She might not be the head councilor anymore, but she still had power over them. They hadn't noticed her come in, so she made sure to close the door extra loudly.

"Guys, go back to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow."

"Well if it isn't little miss perfect."

"Save it, Drew." Piper _really _wasn't in the mood to deal with Drew's crap right now.

"Aren't you the head councilor? You're supposed to stay with us and make sure we do what we're supposed to, but the first chance you got, you ran off to go and play with your little friend."

"Oh my gods, Drew, shut up. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now, so just go to sleep."

"Honey, you really need to-"

"Drew! Shut _up _already. No one here cares what you have to say. Don't you remember when I took your place as head councilor? Everyone here cheered and carried me on their damn shoulders because they were just _that _happy you were dethroned. So why don't you go take a look at yourself in the mirror, figure out why that is, and come back when you've had an attitude adjustment," she snapped. Drew opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, unsure of what to do with herself. Piper felt guilty for blowing up at her, but she did enjoy the look on Drew's face._  
_

"And I'm sure if Annabeth were here, she'd kick your ass. You wouldn't dare say that in front of her, because you're so scared of her. So just leave her alone, because you don't know what the hell she's going through right now. So just... mind your own business." It was a lame finish, but Piper wasn't going to let Drew belittle Annabeth's problems.

"Good night, Drew," she said, getting back into her bed and throwing the light switch on the wall next to her, throwing the cabin into darkness. Piper settled down in her bed, letting her eyes close and sleep take over. Before she let her dreariness take her into what would be another nightmare-filled sleep, Piper made a decision. She would get Annabeth to Percy if it was the last thing she did. She never wanted to see her best friend break down like that, ever again.

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**Hope you guys liked it! Please review, I love constructive criticism! Love you guys xx**


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